City is still owed $345,519 in fines

SIKESTON - A list of Sikeston warrants for unpaid fines and costs appears in the Standard Democrat today, current as of Oct. 31.

As of Tuesday, 2,173 individuals still owe the city fines and costs with a total of $345,519.

Of these, 468 are 30 days or more in arrears, owing a total of $285,683 and 171 of the 468 have outstanding warrants with fines totaling $91,735.

The names and addresses of these 468 individuals have been forwarded to the city's collection agency and are in various stages of collection from the filing of reports with the nation's top three credit bureaus to garnishments.

Liens have been placed against drivers licenses for 199 among this group who appear on the list due to traffic violations.

Those currently on probation with the state have had their probation officers notified of the warrants for contempt of court and unpaid fines. The Missouri Department of Corrections has been contacted regarding incarcerated individuals owing fines and costs to the city and will notify the Sikeston Department of Public Safety of their release dates.

On a recent warrant roundup, DPS started with a list of 84 warrants, 26 of which were found to be incarcerated by the DOC leaving 58 warrants to serve.

By 2 p.m. Nov. 24, 19 arrests had been made. Court collections for November totaled $24,267 of which $15,648 was backfine payments, compared with only $2,968 in backfine payments for November 2002.